The Tank: Its Birth & Development.

ARMOURED WARFARE.

Published by England: William Foster & Co. Ltd, [1920]

About this Item

First edition of this early history of the tank, published by William Foster & Co., agricultural engineers, the company instrumental in design and testing. It is illustrated throughout with early prototypes, the men and women who helped build it, and images of the factory during the tank's production. In 1919 the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors credited the invention of the tank to Sir William Tritton, managing director of Fosters, and Lieutenant Walter Wilson. Tritton had overseen the adaptation of tractors for military use and tests were successful. "The whole concept had caught Churchill's imagination [and] with his customary energy he appointed a 'landships' committee … to investigate the project more fully … In June 1915 a joint naval and military committee was formed to consider the alternative proposals of a tractor running on large wheels or caterpillar tracks. Tritton … was told more exactly what the landship machine was supposed to do … [and he] continued to modify his design for the body, assisted by Lieutenant (later Major) Walter Gordon Wilson, who was responsible for the engine" (ODNB). Oblong quarto. Colour frontispiece with tissue guard, illustrations and photographs throughout. Original dark blue quarter roan by Bemrose & Sons, blue cloth boards, gilt foliate rolls, front board lettered and decorated in black and gilt, vignette of a tank in black and grey, rear board lettered in gilt, vignette of a tank in black, brown pictorial endpapers, binder's ticket to rear pastedown. Soiling, damp staining and wear to cloth, hinge opposite p. 90 cracked, professional tape repair to p. 36. A good copy.

Seller Inventory # 179061

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Tank: Its Birth & Development.
• Publisher: England: William Foster & Co. Ltd, [1920]
• Edition: 1st Edition